Oxymoron

fourteen doves he’d complain about wasting ammunition,” (p. 108) indicating he was unrelenting in his pursuit of perfect aim. However, he gave up shooting when he realised "God had given him an unfair advantage over most living things.” (p. 109). The oxymoron of “unfair advantage” depicts Atticus’ ethical examination of the killing defenceless creatures without consideration for their right to live. He discovers the bipartisan nature of advantages — their potential to favour someone or…

lack of love shown towards the end of their relationship is similar to that shown between Havisham and her ex-fiancé. Havisham, however, shows mixed feelings about her ex-lover, which is also demonstrated through the use of pet names. Her using an oxymoron in referring to him as ‘beloved sweetheart bastard’ shows that while she hates him and how their relationship ended, she also still loves him. ‘Beloved sweetheart’ would ordinarily be an affectionate term, but the addition of ‘bastard’ shows…

From Beginning to End and Back Again: An Analysis of Cycles in Bei Dao’s ‘At the Sky’s Edge’ At the end of Süskind’s Perfume, Grenouille realizes how much he actually hates people and decides to return to Paris where he allows himself to be torn to pieces and consumed by those drawn to his perfume. Grenouille was born to a fishwife that left him and many other illegitimate infants die, but unfortunately Grenouille was rescued and lived a life void of love and emotion. Grenouille turned out to…

is smothered in surmise and nothing is but what is not” (1.3.153-155). These words reveal Macbeth's thoughts of murder instantly. The last part of this passage, "and nothing is but what is not," means nothing exists except what doesn't exist. This oxymoron resembles the words of the witches in the first scene, "fair is foul, and foul is fair," which means bad is good and good is bad. After murdering King Duncan, Macbeth moves on to murder Duncan’s servants, Banquo, and Macduff’s whole family. He…

Human nature dictates that a person’s ultimate goal is to achieve happiness. Ever since the dawn of moral philosophy, brilliant minds have struggled with the meaning of “good” or “bad”. In the late 1200s, not long before Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales take place, St. Thomas Aquinas postulated two definitions of “good”. On one hand, he said, a good action is one which propels us towards happiness. However, from his religious standpoint, Aquinas considered that one may never achieve final…

Imagine wanting to learn something, but not being able to. Imagine wanting to share something, while being incapable of doing so. Imagine knowing the truth, while others are dying to find it. In a world of complete equality, traits that create human life are removed in order to create a better society. These are your feelings. Your thoughts. Your emotions. All this is gone for the so-called “greater good”. In both The Giver and “Examination Day,” the main characters differ from other citizens…

can the apocalypse be associated with an abstract body of knowledge like the arts? The end of the world, an event normally viewed as catastrophic and devastating, is not commonly associated with the beauty and finesse of Literature. Seemingly an oxymoron, End of the World literature uses literary works ranging from poems to short stories, along with a plethora of literary devices, to highlight the themes related to the extinction of humankind. Poems such as “Ozymandias”, short stories such as…

The Servant Leader “The servant-leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. The conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead”(Greenleaf, 1970, p.42). The word nurse is derived from the Latin word nutriunt, which means to nourish; and it is rather apparent that in order to nourish, one must first be willing to serve; for a personal constitution that lacks the capacity to serve will always confuse wants with needs. As James Hunter…

The youth is inexperienced and require guides in life to act as role models, and point them in the right direction. In Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, daughter and son of opposing spiteful families seek help when faced with problems posed by the depth of their love. Shakespeare argues that caregivers are significant as their advice and assistance can negatively impact the young and impressionable in love, expressed through events predominantly involving the characters of the…

Tom and Daisy were careless people, only cared for themselves and left a wake of destruction wherever they went without ever considering to fix their personal issues by themselves. Tom does not care enough for Daisy, Myrtle or Wilson to be an honest and reliable man, which in turn affected all parties negatively except for his and daisy’s rich lifestyle. Daisy, also leads Gatsby on and retreats back into her life of luxury with Tom due to Gatsby’s socioeconomic status. Tom has a…